My promise
by thunderbird5
Summary: Alan kept on having nightmares about John being sucked out into space without his spacesuit on. He asks his brother to promise him to come home again. Was something about to happen to John? My entry for the 2015 PROMISE CHALLENGE.


Thanks to TB's LMC for helping me with this story.

 **Disclaimer:** How I wish the boys were mine. But no, they belong to someone else.

 **My Promise**

I'd been living in an overpopulated orphanage; too many kids being dumped here for a while now. Scrubbing my hands through my dirty blond hair, I busied myself by searching for International Rescue's IP address. I was hitting buttons on my keyboard with more force than even I knew was necessary, glaring at the screen.

I'd hated International Rescue since the day they'd failed to save my family. I despised the office I was in with its plain yellow walls, simple chairs and brown scratched desk. I cracked my knuckles and grumbled, "Today I'll find them, oh yes, I'll find those buggers today."

I opened a program I'd written myself and my screen filled with column after column of IP addresses. I narrowed my eyes when the auto search protocol started flitting from address to address to address. "I almost have you, I can feel it in my veins," I whispered.

My fingers twitched as the protocol slowed, grinding away on one highlighted IP address. "I was taken out of a private school and dumped into a public school. With the orphanage getting donations from everyone, they could have paid for the school I'd attended before," I mumbled, completely consumed by what had taken over my life since my mother, father and two brothers died, no thanks to this so-called rescue organization.

The screen suddenly flipped to the second stage. I could taste victory. The computer made a _tada_ sound and a complicated network diagram appeared on-screen. I stared at it in disbelief, reading the words over and over and over again, just to convince myself they were real.

INTERNATIONAL RESCUE HIDDEN IP LOCATED.

Jumping up, I couldn't contain my joy and yelled, "I've got you now!"

* * *

The day had started out pretty normally. When I got to the control room of _Thunderbird Five_ after my morning shower, I caught a glimpse of a big silver digital photo frame against the wall opposite the gravity control panel, with a picture of me and my family sliding across it. I remembered a question Alan had asked me a few days ago when we changed shifts. He'd pulled me aside out of Scott's hearing range.

"John, promise me that you'll come home again?"

I couldn't understand why he had asked that. I remembered seeing a fearful expression flash across his face, so I'd asked, "What's going on?"

"I kept on having this dream of you getting sucked into space without your spacesuit on. At first I brushed it off as just a dream but each time I turn in for the night, I dream the same thing again."

I had put my arm around him and smiled. "You sure it's not just your overactive imagination again?"

Alan shook his head. "No, and I'm not making this up, either. I've checked and rechecked the airlocks and found nothing wrong with them, but just be extra careful around here this month, okay?"

"Tell you what, I'll do a double check on all the hatches tomorrow and then I'll give you a call to let you know if I find any problems. If nothing turns up, then your dreams might leave you alone for a while."

The look on his face told me he wasn't convinced.

"I promise I'll be careful. We're both trained to react if something happens on _Five_. Don't worry."

We'd been operating for over eight years and never once had Alan expressed this sort of worry. So I decided I'd follow through on my promise to Alan after _Thunderbird Three_ returned to Base, and check all the hatch mechanisms just to prove to both of us that they were indeed secure. After all, it wasn't like my baby brother to go getting himself that worked up over dreams, so maybe there was something to it, was my reasoning.

After triple checking the seals on the spacesuit I put on, I thought how wonderful the 360-degree view was from within our helmets. Thanks to this new design of Brains', we actually had peripheral vision now when we went spacewalking. Not that I was expecting an alien attack or anything, of course.

I grabbed my toolbox and stepped into the first airlock I came across. I spent some time checking its mechanism for any wear and tear as I waited for the airlock to equalize. The light just above my head turned green and the second hatch opened. I moved on and kept at it for over two hours without finding anything wrong. To me, that proved Alan's dreams _were_ just his overactive imagination.

* * *

As I waited for my computer to connect to the International Rescue mainframe, I couldn't help but think about what I'd do to this orphanage and its brats once I sold the information I was about to get on the black market. I hated the place and everything that had happened to me since I'd arrived there six years earlier. It was their fault that I couldn't get any kind of job but this stupid office position. They gave it to me out of pity once they realized their inability send me back to my private school had made my grades plummet. Ultimately, though, it was all International Rescue's fault.

The window which had text scrolling down it suddenly closed and then reopened to show me a screen of nine camera shots in rows of three by three. On the top left, a blond man in a spacesuit with a weird bubble-like helmet opened and closed a few hatches. I was shocked; it was the same guy who'd looked down at me with sadness written all over his face, like he really cared, and had tried to comfort me while he told me my entire family was gone. Six years later I had sure changed, but that man hadn't.

I couldn't take my eyes off him as my hand went to the computer mouse. It was time to make him pay.

* * *

I was reaching out to key an access code into the docking tube's inner hatch keypad when the lights suddenly dimmed. At the same time an alarm went off. Just as my fingertips touched the buttons, I heard the unmistakable sound of the two outer docking tube hatches opening.

Everything happened in slow motion. My hands, now holding tightly to the bar on the inner airlock door, started to slip. The air escaping from _Five_ seemed to pick up speed, doing something it should never be doing, and just like that, I knew what was going to happen.

As I lost my grip and the cold hands of space started to drag me away from the safety of the station, I could hear my little brother's voice in my head.

" _John, promise me that you'll come home again?"_

I wanted to fight against the pull of space but with no jet pack, there was nothing I could do.

As soon as I shot out of _Thunderbird Five_ 's docking tube, alarms started wailing in my ears, no doubt alerting the island. For a split second I felt panic. Sure, I had oxygen, but when an astronaut's drifting in space without any way of controlling where he's going, having only one and a half hours of air is small comfort.

* * *

I watched as Mr. Bad News grabbed hold of a railing, only to lose his grip and shoot out of the space station. "Bye-bye, space case." I waved at the screen enthusiastically. "Time to see what you're hiding up there."

Grinning and practically bouncing in my chair, I started downloading file after file from their mainframe.

* * *

"John to Base."

'My radio can't be broken, too,' I thought as I flipped over and saw the station again. I keyed my radio a second time. "Base, please respond."

Relief flooded through me when Alan answered my call. "Hey, John, what's going on? I'm only getting an audio feed from you."

"I need some help getting back into _Five_." Hearing only silence, I wondered if the signal was lost and what had happened to the video feed. "Alan, you there?"

When Alan spoke next I could hear that his voice was shaking. "I'm here, John. So my dream came true?"

"Yes and no. Thanks to you I'm in my spacesuit. The hatch I was at opened without warning and I got sucked out."

"Just like in my dream," he whispered.

There was some talking in the background and then the sound of someone moving on the other end.

"John, are you okay?" It was my father, worry etched into his voice. "Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm okay. Just surprised you weren't warned by the alarms that sounded when the hatch opened."

"Brains is busy upgrading the alarm systems. He just tried to call you to tell you before you got Alan. How much air do you have left?"

Looking down at the small screen on my wrist, I was relieved to see that my oxygen tank wasn't damaged. "I have just under one and a half hours."

My father said something I couldn't catch. When he came back to the radio his voice was much calmer. "Alan and Scott are on their way. I've asked Virgil to have Brains help him check _Five'_ s systems for any errors."

"FAB, Father."

I closed my eyes, envisioning Alan and Scott taking the ride down on the settee headed for _Three_.

"John, you still okay?" Dad sounded worried.

"I'm good."

Before my father could ask more questions, Alan's voice interrupted us. "John, we're lifting off in ten minutes."

"Fly safe, Alan, I'm not going anywhere."

With nothing else to do I started to think about what could have happened. And of all things, why did it have to happen when Brains was upgrading the alarm systems? It was if something had it in for me on _Thunderbird Five_ …or maybe it was just plain bad luck.

I could hear someone talking in the background again and then, "John, are you there?" She sounded close to tears.

"I'm here, Grandma, I'm okay."

"I heard that you're outside of _Thunderbird Five_."

I don't like it when our grandmother gets so worried, even if it's for a good reason. "Yes, but I'll be back on _Five_ soon. Don't you worry about me. Hey, Grandma?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Will you bake me one of your pies when I come home?"

I heard her laugh softly. "Yes, I'll bake one just for you."

I felt hungry just thinking of it. "Thanks." Hearing my copper-haired brother somewhere in the background I asked, "Can I speak to Gordon?"

"Of course, John. You just hang on, you hear?"

I wanted to hug my grandma so much right then. What if the one I gave her before I came up here was the last one I'd ever give her? "I'll be safe soon. Love you."

I heard her sniffling at the other end. "Love you too, dear."

Gordon's characteristically cheerful voice filled my ears. "Hi, John, what's space like today?" Leave it to him to try and lighten things up.

"Just thought that I should take an unexpected spacewalk this morning to see for myself."

We laughed. It felt good, though I knew it meant I was using more oxygen than maybe I should be.

"Gordon, you can do me a favor."

"What's that?"

"Go to Brains and ask him if he can design something that will prevent me from shooting out the airlock next time it opens unexpectedly."

"Very funny."

I grinned. "Well, it's just a thought. You okay at least?"

Gordon got a serious tone to his voice. "I'm fine, how about you, are you really okay?"

"Sure thing. Space is awfully comfy."

"Don't worry, Johnny. Scott and Alan will get to you in time."

"I know. I'll see you soon."

"See you."

All channels between Tracy Island, _Thunderbird Three_ and me were open on the same frequency, so I spent the next I don't know how long talking to my family. I knew they were trying to keep my mind off my dwindling air supply. But I knew how long it took _Three_ to get to the space station as well as they did.

It wasn't looking good.

"John." A stern voice laced with fear startled me out of my thoughts. "Would you mind telling me what the hell you did to end up where you are?"

"Hey, Scott. Alan had nightmares of me being sucked out into space. He told me about it when we changed shifts. I was double checking the hatches when poof, out I went."

I didn't need a camera to know that Scott was pushing his hands through his hair making it stand on end. "Do you know what caused the airlock to open?"

"No. The lights flickered for a moment and then the alarm went off. I thought at first that it must have been a power surge."

"There's no way a surge would open an airlock."

"Maybe the generators failed?"

"That wouldn't make the hatches open and you know it."

I felt as frustrated as Scott sounded. I was grasping at straws and we both knew it. Even I was aware of how sarcastic I sounded when I replied, "I'm a little too far from _Thunderbird Five_ to have a look at anything right now."

Scott sighed, letting his frustration go. I knew my big brother scared out of his mind for me. Truth be told, I wasn't far behind in the frightened arena. "You'll be all right. We'll be there soon."

A thirty minute alarm sounded in my ear warning me that my oxygen was running low. Had an entire hour passed already? I quickly silenced it, hoping that Scott hadn't heard it.

"That was your oxygen alarm, wasn't it?"

Scott's ears never missed a sound. "You know it was."

"You'd better be alive when we get to you or else I'll bring you back just to kill you myself."

I couldn't help wondering if those were the last words I'd ever hear my eldest brother and field commander say.

* * *

I couldn't sit still any longer waiting for the files to download. I started pacing up and down in front of the desk. Hacking the space station went fast enough but waiting for the files to download felt like forever. I wanted to see what was in them. Still two hours to go. As long as they didn't notice the back door was open, I'd be fine.

* * *

"John, you okay?" Alan was much calmer now.

"Yes, I'm still okay and in one piece. I'm glad you told me about that dream you had."

For a moment Alan went silent. "We'll be cutting it close. I'm pushing _Thunderbird Three_ over her limits to get to you."

"Well, don't strand yourselves in the process."

My father's voice cut in. "John, Virgil's here with news."

"John." Virgil sounded just as worried as the rest of the family.

"What'd you find?"

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with _Five_. Brains thinks someone gained access to her systems and made that airlock open."

"She's been _hacked_?"

"It seems that way."

"How?"

"Not sure, but Brains is working like lightning trying to find the breach."

"Why would anyone want to hack the station and blow me out an airlock?"

"When I get my hands on them…" I heard our father say.

"Damn it!" Scott spat.

Another alarm went off. This time it was the ten minute mark. "John?" Dad said, knowing full well what the sound meant.

I was starting to feel uneasy. _Thunderbird Three_ was nowhere in sight and time was running out fast.

"John?"

"I'm here, Father."

"I've just deployed every agent we have to find this person and stop them."

"Hey." It was Scott again. "Just let us do the talking for now."

"Scott's right, conserve your oxygen."

"FAB."

My wrist screen told me I only had about five minutes of air left. I tried to twist myself around to look back at Earth, to see if I could spot _Thunderbird Three_. Nothing. I tried to bite back a sob but it didn't work. I had less than five minutes. I was going to die out there.

Alan had a desperate tone in his voice when he suddenly spoke up. "We're almost with you, Johnny, just hang on."

My brothers all started encouraging me to hold on, that _Three_ was almost there and that I'd be okay.

Another alarm. One minute.

I closed my eyes and shut the countdown off. I didn't want to hear how many seconds I had left before I died.

"We're almost there, John." It was Scott, his voice tight.

"John?"

I'm not sure who was calling my name but many more voices were joining in. They all sounded so far away, as if someone was turning the volume down.

"I love you all," I whispered.

* * *

Sixty-five percent of the files had already downloaded but the last thirty-five percent was going at a snail's pace. Raking my fingers through my hair, I scowled. "Now why's my download slowing down?" The screen closed and in its place a message popped up.

DOWNLOAD FAILED.

Banging my fist down on the old desk I shouted, "No way, I'm going to finish this download!" Suddenly the computer screen flashed white, then back to black again with text and numbers scrolling upwards. I realized too late that my computer was being wiped. "No, _no_!" I screeched. My entire body was shaking with anger. "I was so _close_!"

Behind me a voice said, "And now you're finished."

Turning and seeing a redheaded man and two policemen standing in the doorway, I knew that I had nowhere to run. Everything I had gathered over the years and even the files that held the answers as to who those International Rescue guys are was gone now. All my work. All the plans I'd made. All the money I was supposed to get as payback for them not saving my family, nothing had turned out right.

My revenge on International Rescue was over before it had truly begun. How had they found me? _How_?

At least I had the satisfaction of having gotten the man who'd told me my family was dead.

* * *

I groaned, opened my eyes and found myself looking up at two pairs of blue ones.

Both of their faces broke into huge smiles.

"Welcome back," Scott said as he helped me sit up.

Alan headed to the elevator. "Going to initiate docking procedure." He stopped and looked back at me. I knew what he was thinking, because I was thinking it, too.

As soon as Alan was gone, Scott sat down next to me and gave me a one armed hug. "Agent Six tracked down the guy who hacked _Five_ after Brains got a general location."

"So what's the story?" I asked, taking the bottle of water he offered and downing a mouthful.

"He worked at an orphanage in Abakan, Republic of Khakassia in Russia."

"Russia. Really."

Scott nodded. "Agent Six – Joe Rostov – is on the line to tell us about it." He pulled a screen out from the wall and extended it on its arm so it was facing me.

A redheaded man in his twenties appeared on the screen. "Boy, does your hacker have a temper. Ranted on and on about the data he just lost and how they would pay. 'They' being International Rescue, of course."

I frowned. "Do we know how much he saw?"

"Nothing," Scott supplied from next to me. "Brains wiped his files; none of them had been opened yet. He saw a little bit of _Five_ 's interior, and you, but he didn't learn our identities."

Joe nodded. "I asked some of the staff here at this orphanage where we found him if they could tell me anything."

"What'd you discover?" I asked, then downed the rest of my water.

Joe looked at a small notebook he had with him. "Remember that high rise fire you attended in Moscow about six years ago?" I nodded and he continued. "There was a boy who lost his family that day, Peter Mateev. His godparents brought him here soon after the fire and left him."

"Assholes," Scott commented.

"So why did he hack _Five_ and why didn't any of the staff there notice it?"

Joe looked like a kid who'd just come from his favorite toy store. "You should see the computer this guy's got in the office. Its built into his desk and to any ordinary person the desk looks normal. Some of the staff did wonder where the orphanage's money went at times. Now they know _exactly_ where it's been going."

"Thanks, Joe," I said with a nod of deference.

"My pleasure. Jeff's asked me to get Mateev in for a thorough psych eval but authorities aren't cooperating, so we're, uh…" He stopped and gave Scott a sly wink. "Let's just say we're taking matters into our own hands."

I looked back and forth between them, wondering what my father had arranged and what Scott knew about it.

"We're going to give some money to the orphanage to help them out. They're severely understaffed," Scott supplied, as if reading my mind. "Penny's arranging for Mateev to be taken back to England for some help; she can keep an eye on him there."

"I have him in a secure location until she arrives," Joe offered. "I'd better get back to making sure our local police force don't find us. Signing off for now."

"Take care, Joe," Scott said, then turned to me. "Well, at least we know why that guy wanted to get revenge."

"I remember that rescue," I said softly, looking down at the now-empty water bottle in my hands. "I think I was the one who told that kid we couldn't save his family."

Scott's hand squeezed my shoulder. "Yeah, but that's the first time anyone you've told that to grew up and tried to kill you."

I nodded. "I'm just glad Brains managed to track him down in time. When I think of what could've happened..."

"Tell me about it."

"Docking procedure complete," came Alan's voice through the speakers.

We made our way onto the space station. I felt a little lightheaded still, but overall no worse for the wear. Off a nod from Scott, I turned to the main console and made the call I hadn't known if I'd ever be able to make again.

" _Thunderbird Five_ to Base."

When my father's face appeared on my screen, it suddenly hit me how close I came to never seeing him again.

Seeing _any_ of them.

I smiled as Alan came up to stand on my left and Scott on my right. I turned and looked into Alan's eyes. Thanks to him, I'd kept my promise. I guess I owed him an awful lot all the way around.

Dad sounded relieved to be saying, "Welcome back, son."

"Thanks," I said. And not just to him.


End file.
